Chicken Pox and Female Hair Loss

I am a 23 year old girl and have patches of severely thinning hair on my crown. I started losing my hair at the age of 20. Prior to that I had very thick and long hair but it has thinned very rapidly for reasons I am not sure of. My grandmother on my dad’s side is bald and I am afraid that I might have inherited that from her. However, I also had chicken pox when I was 21 years old and lost a lot of hair then. It never completely grew back after that. Also, I have applied aurvedic hair oil all my life, so does having an oily scalp cause thinning? I also have acne, so is it hormonal? How will I know what exactly is wrong with me? Please help. Thank you very much.

First, you need to have a complete medical work-up, because hair loss in women is often a side symptom resulting from some other problem. Female hair loss is inherited and some women report relatives with similar histories at similar ages, but first assume that the problem is one that has a cause which might be fixed. It is a difficult problem to address, because there are very few medical treatments available for female genetic hair loss, but if (for example) you had a thyroid problem causing the hair loss, then it needs to be addressed before expecting changes in the hair situation. If your hair loss condition is affecting your life, you should want to consult a good doctor who understands hair loss, but first any doctor can do the test defined elsewhere in this blog.

Chicken pox may have been a medical stress that may have caused you to lose hair or to accelerate a genetic pattern inherited as discussed above. Oily skin and special shampoos and hair products, however, are not generally associated with hair loss.